Left behind
by TELLTALEGIRL
Summary: "Why! Why did you kill them? What makes me so special!" "They were standing in the way of what was mine." Rewrite of the first story left behind.
1. chapter 1

It has been three months since the apocalypse had started. But me and my family made it, we survived while the rest of the world went to hell around us. There was only me, my sister Kayla who was going to be a marine. And my parents.

We lived in Avery county, with no major cities surrounding us. But there were a few neighbors, some died and some left. But we stayed, and made a home there. When the dead started walking we were pretty isolated. So we didn't really have to worry about them, and it gave us major time.

We were able to take the cow fields electric fences and surround our house, and isolate a spot for the animals. We also found some solar panels, and was able to get our electricity going again. And we ran the fences off of the generators at the neighbors house. We were also able to save most of the cows along with my sister's two horses. And believe it or not my shih tzu and three cats survived as well with my rabbit who was kept in a large cage outside. We also set aside a place outside to growgrow fruits and vegetables.

In three months time we were able to scrounge up a lot of gas, bullets, guns, weapons, food you name it. And with the river in front of the house, we had endless clean water.

We had everything we needed, and we had each other. And for one moment everything was perfect.

And then that moment ended.

It was late one night when I had just finished my walk around the fence, to push off any dead that got caught in the fence. Kayla had offered to come with me, but I told it was fine and that I could handle it alone. But I didn't go alone, I took our dog jack with me.

"Doesn't look like there are any walkers around huh jack? Maybe if its clear tomorrow me, you and Kayla could head over to the Indian cliffs and go for a swim." I say while looking down at jack. "How's that sound bud?" He just gives me one of his snorts, and starts to sniff a patch of weeds.

I stopped to wait for him, and my gaze wandered over to the house. A smile found its way onto my lips, as I thought I was the luckiest person in the world to still have my whole family. "You know jack don't get me wrong, I'm glad we're all together..." Then my smile faltered and my gaze moved to the bridge.

"But don't you ever wonder what it would be like to leave, I mean there has to be other people out there that have this figured out better than us. Safety in numbers remember. Right?" But in response to my question I hear jack growling.

I look over at him and see him growling at the fence. I then hear over jacks growls, the moans. In the darkness the shadows of the walkers become clear. "Jack shut up, or they'll hear you." Once I said this he grew quiet. I reached to the holster on my waist and grabbed my hunting knife. My dad got it for me before this started.

I walked to the fences small wooden gate and opened it, walking in I locked it behind me to prevent them getting in. As I walked closer I notices one of them just standing there, while the other two kept getting closer to the other one. "That's weird..." But when I spoke the figure not moving looked back at me, and my heart stopped.

It wasn't a walker, it was a man. And before I had the chance to say anything one of the walkers lunged at the man. He stood there struggling with the thing, while I tried tritries to get a clear shot on it without hitting the man. But as I went to swing the other walker tackled me to the ground.

When I hit the ground my knife turned at a bad angle and cut a gash on my arm. The walker then started to try and bite me. I brought my hands and started to push on its shoulders. "GET THE FUCK OFF!" I screamed in frustration, starting to feel my arms tremble in exhaustion. I knew it was only a matter of time before my arms gave out. Either the walker would get me or the blood loss would.

In the background I could hear jack barking and growling. And that man struggling with the other walker. I might have been seeing things when I saw the porch come on and saw people coming off the porch. Just as I was about to pass out, I felt the walkers weight pulled off of me.

I looked over to my side where the walker fell, and saw as the monster was piked by my knife. I looked up to see the man from before as he crouched down beside me. And that's when I felt him lift me up into his arms. "Who...are you?" I muttered struggling to keep my open as we headed back to the gate. On the other side of the fence I saw my family, with Kayla pointing a gun in our direction.

"Carver sweetie, is that your family?" The man says and I nod. I look and see that the gate was already open as we approached, and that's when I heard yelling. "Who the fuck are you!?" My dad is yelling, and I hear Kayla saying "What did you do to her?!"

"Nothing, but she got cut on that knife of hers. She's bleeding out." Carver says as I bury my head in his chest trying to block out all their voices. Everything was blurry and everyone's voices were incomprehensible slurs.

The last thing I remember is hearing my dad saying 'this way' and being carried off towards the house before I blacked out in that strangers arms.


	2. Chapter 2

The first thing I felt was pain. My arm was on fire, and my head was pounding. I try to open my eyes, but when I do I am  
assaulted by the sunlight filtering into my room.

I quickly shut my eyes and groan, from the brightness. But knowing I need to get up, I tried again. This time I slowly  
opened my eyes and let them get used to the light. When I opened them fully I saw that I was in my bedroom.

I sat up slowly and cringed when pain shot up and down my right arm. I looked down at my arm and saw that it was stitched  
and bandaged. 'Someone must have patched me up while I was out.' I thought to myself.

Then everything that happened last night came rushing back to me. The walkers, that man that saved me and then just  
darkness. "Ugh, my head." I say as I clutch my head in pain from the rushing memories. But I was torn from my  
thoughts when I heard my bedroom door open.

I look up and see my sister, and Jack jumped on my bed after he ran in excited to see me. "You're up." She said with  
a smile as she throws me a granola bar. "You should eat something, you lost a lot of blood." "How long was I out?" I  
ask her. "About a day, its late afternoon now." She replies as I eat the small piece of food.

"I feel like shit." I say, and this earned a chuckle from my sister. "You look it too." Kayla adds with a grin, and we  
both share a laugh. We then entered a peaceful silence, but after a minute or two Kayla broke it. "Almost thought you  
were dead at one point." She says out of the blue, and I looked at her shocked. "What?" I ask, and she started to pet  
the dog refusing to look at me. "You stopped breathing. We stitched up your arm and banaged it, but after that there  
wasn't much we could do. But after we noticed you stopped breathing, we were just ready to give you mercy right then  
and there." She seemed to struggle continuing with the story, but did so anyways. "Then that man saved you. Before we  
could mercy you, he comes over and started to do CPR. I thought he was stupid as hell, if you had turned you could have  
ripped his face off. We tried to stop him, but right as we went to pull him away you started to breath again." She  
finished finally bringing herself to look me in the eyes.

"He saved... me?" I ask skeptically, and she nodded. "Where is he? I owe him a thanks." I say as I go to stand, but  
stumble as I reach my feet. Thankfully I steady myself against the dresser, and Kayla stands to help me but I wave her  
off. "Are you sure? You need to rest-" She tries to say but I cut her off.

"I'm sure. I would have died if not for him." I say as I face her, she seems reluctant but answers me. "Mom and Dad have  
him outside, trying to decide what to do with him." "Seriously?!" I ask shocked. "You'd think they'd be thankful to the  
man that saved me." I then turn from her and head into the living room, Kayla and Jack folloing behind me.

"They said he might be dangerous." She says trying to stop me from going outside. And thats when the realization hit me.  
"You don't trust him either." I say to her. "Ashley we don't know anything about him. For all we know he's like those  
bandits out there. And the second we let him go, he and his friends will come back and kill us." She argues, looking at  
the floor thinking this is over.

She was right, there are always risks when trusting a stranger. You turn your back on them, and they are sure to try  
something. But I wasn't ready to stop trusting people. This man was the first person we had seen in about a month, and  
my family is already acting like he might as well be one of the walkers. When I tried to save him he could have just  
left me for dead, but he didn't. And even more he saved me, when my own family was ready to mercy me.

"Please Kayla, let me do this. You guys say I trust too easily and maybe I do. But if I don't at least thank him for  
saving me I won't forgive myself. You guys can do what you want with him, but just let me do this." I plead with her  
and she looks out the door before nodding at me. "Just be careful, one of these days you're gonna end up trusting the  
wrong person. And when that happens, I don't wanna be around when..." She trails off and I walk by her and open the door.  
"Don't worry. I know what I'm doing Kayla." I say as I walk out the front door with Kayla and Jack following behind me.

The first thing that greets my eyes is my parents standing beside the tool shed, and in front of them stood that man.  
Carver I think, and his hands were bound behind his back and tied to one of the metal rings on the shed that we tie  
the horses or cows to sometimes. I walk down the steps and over to them. Upon closer inspection I see that my dad has his  
rifletrained on him, but surprisingly the man seems unfazed. It was then that my dad heard me and looks over to see me and  
Kayla outside.

"Girls get back inside." He says curtly, but I don't listen and walk to the other side of them. "I don't think so, we  
agreed we would all decide on what we do with strangers." I tell him and motion to his rifle. "Now put the gun down. No  
sense in killing him, we need the bullets and we can't risk the sound." My dad looks as if he is gonna refuse, but then he  
listens and lowers the gun. Back when we met the first bunch of people we decided we would vote on what we would do with  
them.

"Well I can already see who the leader of this little family is." The man jokingly says, and my dad glares at him. "Shut  
your mouth." He says and the man just shrugs. He then looks over at me and smiles. "Good to see your still alive little  
lady. Hows that arm treating ya?" He asks looking at my bandaged arm. I subconsciously grab it remembering last night.  
"Its fine, I've had worse trust me. And I wanted to thank you for saving me." I say to him and he nods. "You're welcome  
sweetie, couldn't let you die without returning the favor. Hell if you hadn't of found me when you did. I would have  
been lurker food."

I smile at him and start to think to myself. 'This is about the first decent person we've seen in a while.' I don't see  
why the rest of my family is so weary of people, we can't always be afraid of strangers. If we were to be separated, we'd  
have to rely on the honesty of others. I was shaken from my thoughts by Kayla.

"Lurkers? Is that what you call them?" She asks and the man just shrugs. "Seemed to suit them at the time, they just lurk  
around like a stalker." He then looks up at us and continues. "What do ya'll call them?" Kayla went to answer him, but the  
words juts flew out of my mouth before I could stop them. "Walkers." I say to him. "Walkers? Thats pretty smart." He says  
but my dad quickly interrupts him. "Why don't we hold off on all the niceties?"

"Your dad's right girls, for all we know he could be dangerous." My mom says glaring at the man. "I'll tell ya'll what you  
wanna know just name it." Carver says, and my dad ponders this for a moment. "Where are you from?" My dad asks and the man  
answers. "Got a big group not far from here. Me and my people are holed up in an abandoned hardware store." My dad seems  
skeeptical but the man continues. "We were running low on medicine, so I took a group of people out to scavenge. We got  
split up by a small herd of lurkers, told my people to go ahead and head back and I'd meet them there."

He paused for a moment, as if thinking if he should tell us more or leave it at that. But then he continues. "That was  
four days ago. My people probably think I'm dead or worse. If ya'll would just help me out, I'd be much obliged."

My dad is thinking this over and he finally comes to a conclusion. "What do you need?" He asks still wary of the man.  
"Set of wheels, or maybe of them horses. Just something thats gonna get me back to my people." Before he can continue  
Kayla jumps in at the mention of Foxx and Mac. "No way are you getting one of my horses. You have no idea the hell I  
went through to get them here." My dad just shakes his head. "Not sure we risk the car or the horses." "You can't be  
seriously be considering letting this man go?! He could be lying, and be one of those bandits from before." My mom yells  
at him.

"If there was more mom, I think we'd have seen them by now. And you heard him, no one travels alone by choice anymore."  
Kayla intervenes, and I also voice my opinion. "We can't let him go without a few supplies, but why not him stay a few  
days. To rest up before we throw him out."

"There's a sensible idea. I'd listen to your girl if I was ya'll." Carver starts to say but my dad cuts him off. "Shut  
up." "He's lying, we can't risk him going back to his group and telling them where we are." My mom argues, but Kayla was  
starting to get fed up. "But killing him?! Is that really the answer?" Kayla questions while crossing her arms over her  
chest.

My dad lets out a sigh and turns to face us. "Kayla you don't think we should kill him. We know where your mom stands  
on the subject." He then looks at me. "Your the swing vote here Ash. Whats it gonna be?" He asks and I look down at the  
man in thought

"We have to let him stay for a little while and then let him go." I state looking up at my dad. He let out a breath of  
pent up air then nodded. "We can't!" My mom says looking panicked. "Look at him mom, he's tied up and isn't even armed.  
We can't just kill him. This isn't in self defense." I say and Kayla nods at me. "She's right, I mean yeah some people  
are bad apples. But we aren't." She says and she pulls her knife from her sheath, preparing to cut the man's binds.

"But last time-" My mom tries to continue but I stop her. "Mom that was a long time ago! If we kill this man, we are  
giving up a part of ourselves that we can NEVER get back." I say and look down at the ground. I then look back up at  
the man. "I'm not ready to let that go." The man the smiles at me and I can't help but return it. My dad turns to Kayla.  
"Cut him free." He says and Kayla complies.

Once the man was free from his binds, my dad comes to stand in front of him. "Listen you can stay for two days, but thats  
it. And we'll give you a few supplies to make it back to your people with. But you came THIS close to death today, and if  
you tell anybody where we are or hurt anyone here... You'll wish you had died today." My dad finishes and the man nods.  
I turn to Kayla and share a smile with her. I guess she knew what I would pick before I even did.

"You can sleep in the cops old house, for now. Ashley you're in charge of him till he's gone alright? Now show him where  
he'll be staying." My dad says to me and I nod. I then walk over to the man and pull his arm to follow me.


End file.
